Making an integrated circuit depends heavily on computational resources, beginning with capturing a design specification and continuing through testing of the resulting circuitry. Computer-based tools are used in the design flow and assist in design capture, circuit design simulation, synthesis, technology mapping, place-and-route, and generation of data for configuring a programmable IC or fabricating an integrated circuit. Improving the algorithms that perform any one of the design flow tasks can reduce the computational resources required and improve computational efficiency.
Simulating a circuit design can place significant demands on processor, memory, and input/output resources of a computer system. The model used to represent a circuit design and the algorithm for processing simulation events against the model both contribute to memory and processor requirements.